Rate My Professor Hayley Cullen

Dr Hayley Cullen is a Lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences at Macquarie University. She completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at the University of Sydney, awarded on 7 October 2021, with a thesis entitled 'Inattentional blindness in eyewitnesses to crime: Consequences for eyewitness safety, memory and credibility.' She also holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours Class I) from the University of Sydney obtained in 2015. Her career includes previous roles as an Associate Lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Newcastle from February 2021 to August 2023, casual academic and research assistant in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney, and Lecturer at the Australian College of Applied Psychology. In her current position, she serves as co-course director for the Bachelor of Psychology (OUA) and is a member of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee in the School of Psychological Sciences. She has won several prestigious teaching awards.

Hayley Cullen's research focuses on forensic psychology, examining cognitive processes including attention, memory, and perception in contexts such as eyewitness identification, jury decision-making, and policing. Her work investigates phenomena like inattentional blindness, where witnesses fail to notice critical details due to divided attention, the weapon focus effect, memory suggestibility from post-event information, and influences on eyewitness accuracy such as online media and immediate recall. As director of the Macquarie University Psychology and Crime Lab (MacqPAC), she explores intersections between psychology and crime, including wrongful convictions. Key publications include 'Miscarriages of justice in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand: mental health outcomes and life experiences of wrongfully convicted and accused individuals' (Growns, Cullen et al., 2026, Australian Journal of Psychology), 'News as a form of post-event information: the effect of online media type and source credibility on eyewitness memory' (Crittenden, Obeid & Cullen, 2026, Psychology, Crime & Law), 'Adults are just as susceptible to memory suggestibility when reporting about single and repeated events' (Dilevski, Cullen & van Golde, 2025, Scientific Reports), and 'Witnesses who experience inattentional blindness are only less accurate for peripheral details' (Cullen et al., 2025). Her contributions aim to refine eyewitness procedures and mitigate justice system errors through experimental studies and public outreach.